Summary
5 tech score
“Venom” (Sony Pictures)
“Venom” is a movie I anticipated with enthusiasm. I like super hero movies and Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams are two off my favorite actors. It seemed to be a movie that would fit nicely in the Marvel world. So what went wrong between my anticipation and my actual enjoyment? A lot!
The film got off to a quick start with a spacecraft returning to earth after having collected four specimen of alien life. Of course it crashed upon re-entry. It had to or there would have been no movie. Three of the specimen were found while the other disappeared into the wild. Cut to investigative reporter Eddie Brock (Hardy) going after a story on Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), the Elon Musk type financier who oozes charm while hiding secrets about what he wants to do with the alien specimen that have been found.
At some point Eddie has to come face to face with the alien species and when he does it oozes into his body. Sometimes its black scaly skin and piranha teeth are on the outside and sometimes it is on the inside with a regular looking Eddie facing the world. Eddie knows he either has to get this creature out of his body or learn to control it. And that my friends is what the movie is all about.
Hardy starts off making his character interesting but about a third of the way through the film he just stands back and lets the special effects team take over. He doesn’t try to make the audience understand or relate to Eddie. For fans of the alien this is good news, but for the rest of us it is bad. We want Hardy to give us another Robert Downey, Jr./Chris Evans/Mark Ruffalo heroic match of actor and role . Even Chris Hemsworth gave a more striking performance than this one.
Then there is poor Michelle Williams. She has the role of “the girl friend.” The filmmakers try to find a way to get her into the action but it falls flat. Williams is an actress who is noted for her outstanding abilities and she could have done so much with just a bit of a character to hold on to. However with only tidbits thrown her way she is just a shadow on the screen.
The film is rated PG-13 for violence and profanity.
The movie is not without some fun and exciting sequences but they are too little and too late. The movie needs an overall energy it does not possess, as well as a leading man who has so much charisma the audience can not help but be drawn in. Tom Hardy should have been the actor to do this but he fails at the task.
I thought “Venom” would offer a new A-Team Marvel hero, but this guy has definitely been warming the bench for a reason. He can only get in the game now because the season has already been won.
I scored “Venom” a poisonous 5 out of 10.
Jackie K Cooper
www.jackiekcooper.com
